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Tribal leaders meeting in Iraq's second-largest city have rejected the idea of forming a locally based fighting force outside the purview of the official Iraqi security forces.
Such groups, referred to as "Awakening" (in Arabic Sahwa) councils, have been organized in much of Iraq's predominantly Sunni Arab areas, where the locally based paramilitaries have fought in conjunction with, and often on the payroll of, American forces. However, recent movements to extend the model into Iraq's predominantly Shi'a areas have stirred controversy at the local and national levels.
In a conference of tribal leaders on Wednesday in Basra, tribal leaders categorically rejected the formation of a Sahwa council in Basra, and affirmed their commitment to keeping the oil-rich province under the control of the Iraqi security forces, al-Malaf Press reports in Arabic.
A member of the Iraqi Parliament, Daghir al-Mousawi, said that the experience of forming Sahwas in the western and central provinces can't be generalized to the southern provinces, which are considered to be relatively secure and stable, adding in his remarks to reporters that this conference to rebuff those voices that call for the formation of a Sahwa in Basra, adding that Basra does not need a Sahwa council, especially since the security file in the province has now been handed over to the Iraqi security forces, the Iraqi agency writes.
"The security apparatus has the support of all the political parties in Basra," he added, referring to a pact signed by the leading political groupings in Basra earlier in the month affirming their commitment to the work of the security forces.
Mousawi is affiliated with the governing United Iraqi Alliance.
"Today's gathering of the tribes in Basra is meant to send a message: 'No to the Sahwa councils . . . this city is nearly calm and stable. But the formation of a Sahwa will expose it to danger. . . Basra is not Anbar, nor Diyala, nor Salah al-Din,'" the MP said, referring to provinces further north where Sahwa councils have been formed to fight against Sunni extremist organizations associated with al-Qa'ida in Iraq.
Al-Mousawi, speaking on behalf of the committee on tribal affairs that he oversees in the Iraqi Parliament, said that all the activities that aim to establish Sahwa councils in Basra do not reflect the wishes of the tribes in the province.
"I don't believe that the tribes are the ones who want this, rather people using the names of the tribes to arrive at their own sick goals," he said, al-Malaf Press writes.
